"The kids are phenomenal," Von Maxey said. "We're really excited. We love our community. A lot of people don't understand how difficult the sport of cross country really is."

The boys team qualified for state competition in several ways this season, which runs from late August to the last week in October, though individuals on the team practice all year round.

"This was our seventh year in a row to qualify for state," he said.

At the beginning of the season, some 400 teams are vying for a spot in the state meet, Von Maxey said. By the time the championship competition comes around, about 40 teams that have qualified.

"We are so very proud of them," Von Maxey said.

The season consisted of 16 races, which are two miles each. Eleven teams compete in Lake County, and about 70 runners compete in each race. At the state meet, it's a 3,000-meter race, just a little less than two miles.

Von Maxey, who ran track and cross country at Tavares High School in the '90s, said the boys varsity team has an excellent work ethic and dedicated coaches.

"Our coaching staff is incredible," he said. "They work so hard year round. I'm proud and happy to work with them."

Von Maxey said team members practice five days a week and during the summer, they participate in fun runs and 5K runs. Some go to special camps in North Carolina.

"To be champions, we practice year round," he said. "We treat this like it's a high school program — you have to at the state level."

The team's associate coach is Von Maxey's wife April, and the assistant coach is Tony Segreto. The girls varsity team took sixth place at state competition.

Von Maxey started the cross-county program at the school more than a decade ago. He also started middle school running clubs in Lake County with two other schools — Windy Hill and Cecil E. Gray middle schools. That brought the sport of cross-country to the middle schools.

"We ran against them. The three of us planned it out," he said. "It's an amazing dream that I had that started in my classroom with 11 kids in the first year. We've had 100 kids on the team for 11 years."

As for the state championship, Von Maxey said, "It means a lot to have grown up here, and I am happy to bring a state championship to Tavares."

Since 2005, the middle school's cross-country team has won the 2016 Florida Youth Runners Association Middle School Boys Florida State Championship. They've placed in the top 10 a dozen times in association competition, seven times in the top five and were runners-up twice.

The boys and girls teams together have won more than 80 invitational races including the nationally-renowned Disney Classic in 2012 and 2013, the FleetFeet Invitational and the Jim Ryun Invitational. They also placed third in the Footlocker USA Regionals in North Carolina in 2013.